1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to open honor based merchandise display boxes that include a coin compartment, so that money can be donated when an article of merchandise is removed from the display box by a consumer, and more particularly to such merchandise containers wherein a merchandise compartment and coin compartment are unistructurally constructed from a single shaped blank of paper based material, folded in such a manner so as to deter the theft of monies from the coin compartment.
2. Prior Art Description
Merchandise has been sold to consumers, based on an honor system, probably since the creation of coined money. The honor system sale of merchandise includes the open display of the merchandise to the public so that a consumer may take of the merchandise as desired. Located either near, or on, the merchandise display is a coin box and a suggested price. The consumer is then trusted to deposit the proper amount of money into the coin box, corresponding to the suggested value of the merchandise that has been removed from the display. Such honor based merchandise displays are commonly called donation boxes or honor boxes, since there is no mechanism that prevents a consumer from removing merchandise from the display without paying.
Honor based merchandise displays are usually placed in public or semi-public areas, so as to maximize the number of potential consumers for the goods on display. However, often the location of the honor based merchandise display is unsupervised, leaving the merchandise display vulnerable to theft. There are three types of theft that commonly occur to honor based merchandise displays. The first is the most common and includes a person taking a displayed article of merchandise and failing to pay. This type of theft is commonplace and is considered part of the cost of doing business with honor based merchandise displays. The second type of theft is less common, but more costly to the owner of the honor based merchandise display, and includes the theft of money from the coin compartment of the display. As has been described, the honor based merchandise displays include coin box compartments. As merchandise is sold to honest consumers, the coin box fills with money creating a tempting target for theft. However, although the honor based merchandise displays are unsupervised, they are located in public or semipublic areas. As such, a thief who steals money from an honor based merchandise display usually does so in a rapid fashion, while no other people are around. This usually results in the merchandise display being destroyed or otherwise severely damaged as the thief rapidly attempts to reach the money contained within the coin box.
The third type of theft that occurs to honor based merchandise displays is when the entire display is stolen. In such a scenario the owner of the merchandise display loses all the merchandise on display, all the money contained within the coin box and the value of the merchandise display itself.
Little can be done to eliminate the theft of merchandise, without payment, from an honor based merchandise display. To do so, a person would have to replace the honor based merchandise display with a dedicated vending machine, costing thousands of dollars. However, the theft of money from an honor based merchandise display can be economically deterred by decreasing the accessibility of the coin box, thereby increasing the time involved in removing money from the display and increasing the likelihood a thief would detected during the theft. Additionally, the loss incurred when a merchandise display is severely damaged, or stolen in its entirety, can be reduced by producing merchandise displays that are very inexpensive. As such, the merchandise displays can be readily replaced with little financial loss to the owner of the displays.
In an attempt to deter theft, and promote long life in the honor based merchandise displays, some prior art displays were constructed of metal. Such prior art merchandise displays are exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,628,208 to White and 1,779,182 to McEwen. In both references the display itself is constructed from sheet metal and the coin boxes are separately formed units positioned within the sheet metal displays. The sheet metal manufacture of these displays made the merchandise displays very difficult to assemble and very expensive to manufacture, replace or repair.
Prior art honor based merchandise displays that were made inexpensively are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No.: 4,671,455 to Stockman. The Stockman patent shows a display formed from folded paperboard, however the display and the coin box are formed as separate units, and the coin box is given little protection by the paperboard display. The separate formation of the merchandise display and the coin box requires the creation of a separate manufacturing tool and a separate assembling procedure for both the merchandise display and the coin box, increasing the cost of the overall display. Additionally, by providing a separate coin box within the merchandise display, a thief now has a nice container to carry away the money that has been stolen, thus decreasing the time and difficulty required in stealing the money from the merchandise display. To exemplify the difficulty of manufacturing and assembling paperboard coin boxes, refer to U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,020,276 to Fleischer and 2,409,047 to Klein. As can be seen from these cash box references, the separate construction of a coin box will create complicated tooling and assembly procedures that will be reflected in the cost of coin boxes.
Prior art references that make it difficult to remove money from an honor based merchandise display are exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,054,291 to Lambert and 2,950,945 to Holm. In the Lambert patent a separately formed coin chamber is positioned under the merchandise so that the merchandise in the display must be removed before the coins could be accessed. However the Lambert patent presents little deterrence to a thief when the merchandise is low or empty and the coin chamber is full. The Holm patent shows a separate locked coin chamber, however the production of such a coin chamber would add significantly to the cost and difficulty in manufacturing the merchandise display.
In view of the disadvantages present in the prior art, it is a primary objective of the present invention to set forth an honor based merchandise display having both a merchandise compartment and a coin box compartment unistructurally formed from a paper material such as pasteboard, cardboard, or other paperboard, thereby creating a low cost merchandise display that is easy to manufacture and assemble and deters theft by limiting unauthorized access to monies contained within the coin box.